Olivia Rodrigo - you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love

Be it her response to inane internet discourse around her recent penchant for babydoll dresses (a homage to the juxtaposing cute-and-combat-boots look of ‘90s riot grrrl), or her unlikely friendship with Robert Smith (having brought him out onstage at both last year’s Glasto headline and last week’s Primavera ‘secret’ set), one thing is for sure - Olivia Rodrigo knows her references. But she also knows exactly who she is as an artist, too; that is, a supremely canny pop-rock songwriter who’s equally adept penning sad girl ballads as she is rageful, storming revenge bangers, expressing the emotional tumult of warts’n’all young womanhood with remarkable astuteness. Which makes it all the more exciting - indeed, is precisely why - that on third album ‘you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love’, she steps fully out of her former Disney star skin and into new territory so convincingly.

Thematically, admittedly, we’re hardly breaking new ground here - like predecessors ‘SOUR’ (2021) and ‘GUTS’ (2023), this latest record is still squarely centred around Olivia’s romantic encounters with the unfairer sex (namely, the world presumes, her ex-boyfriend, British actor Louis Partridge). Indeed, ‘yspsfagsil’ [catchy, we know - Ed] is made up exclusively of (anti)love songs, a 13-track narrative arc spanning the giddy beginnings of a burgeoning relationship to its bitter end. Opener ‘drop dead’ positively fizzes with the stomach-flipping thrill of early days butterflies; centrepiece ‘purple’, undercut by a skittish beat that bubbles like not-quite-boiling water, speaks of both kismet union and as-yet-unseen red flags (“Our paths intersect ‘til the two lines form a circle”; “It’s crazy, I had big dreams ‘til I tied myself to you”); and bruised break-up ballad ‘less’ lands like a modern Old Hollywood number to be played as the plane takes off from the Casablanca tarmac.

A tale as old as time, yes, but colouring in this story’s outline are referential, repertoire-widening brushstrokes that cast its painter in a whole new light. Showcasing Olivia’s knack for a swelling anthemic build (see also: ‘vampire’ and ‘traitor’), ‘stupid song’ then descends into a beat-driven bridge that begs to be screamed out loud, while ‘my way’ sees her kicking down jealousy’s door to claim possession of what’s hers via siren-esque squalls and gloriously bratty vocals that do their job of invoking queen of the babydoll, Kathleen Hanna, to make for one of the LP’s most thrilling moments. It’s a high point that is, perhaps, only surpassed by its should-be-closer ‘expectations’; the whiplash-inducing contrast between the closing bars of ‘less’ and this bolshy, Gary Numan-like paean to moving on is enough to elicit an audible whoop, while its smart structural echoes of ‘drop dead’ illustrate the benefit of hindsight better than words ever could. (Why the album doesn’t finish on this emphatic high, though, is a mystery).

Elsewhere, ‘maggots for brains’ moves the Paramore-esque pop-punk of ‘GUTS’ back a few decades, swapping anthemic chorus chants for for drum-pad stabs and twangy new wave guitars - a decidedly ‘80s palette that’s carried into ‘u + me = <3’ to imbue the doe-eyed ditty with the same jangly propulsion and youthful optimism of ‘Friday I’m In Love’. Because, of course, ‘yspsfagsil’ doesn’t just invoke the goth-rock legends in guitar tone, track title (‘the cure’), or lyric (‘drop dead’ namechecks ‘Just Like Heaven’); no, here, Olivia cements her reverence - and gives credence to it all - by having Robert Smith as her first ever on-record feature, on their spine-tingling duet ‘what’s wrong with me’.

Just as The Cure have become renowned as masters of emotional depth, marrying introspective poetry with earworm melody to create evergreen songs far greater than the sum of their parts, so Olivia Rodrigo has managed to mine the complicated, confusing, messy business of falling in and out of love to create an accessible yet hugely intelligent album that ushers her into her rightful position as one of her generation’s best artists.